I'm a writer, mostly of speculative fiction, living in rural Tasmania. I've got a rural GP wife and three small kids, and I keep a running commentary of life here so that when my kids are old enough to give a shit, they can read up and discover who their parents used to be.
I tried doing this on paper, but I sucked at it. So I tried doing it online with an audience. It worked.
May contain adult language and concepts. Deal with it.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Let's Go Fly A Kite

...and we did. Yesterday. It was a beautiful, sunny, clear spring day, and the kids have spent enough time inside already due to rain, illness, more rain, mother's illness, and rain.

I packed the three of 'em up, and we drove to the beach. The following photos are posted especially for Cat Sparks, who knows how to say the right thing when it's needed.

We spent a couple of hours watching the kite, and beachcombing. Then we took in a toasty-sandwich lunch at a local cafe and headed back.

Unfortunately, on the way back I began to develop my version of a migraine headache. I get a sharp pain about five centimetres back in the skull, behind one of my eyes. (It was the right, yesterday.)

It's a strange thing. The pain doesn't really seem that bad to me, but for some reason, I can't ignore it, and if I don't do something about it, it kind of takes over my entire perception of the world, and I get knocked flat.

I took a couple paracetamol and a couple ibuprofen. That's usually enough, if I get to it in time. Unfortunately, after an hour or so, things were worse. I had to put the kids on autopilot ("Godzilla movie, anybody?") and lay down in a darkened room.

Things didn't improve. The kids were great, but I was drifting in and out of a horrid, fitful sleep, and the pain behind my eye was like a clenched fist. Luckily, Natalie came home a bit early. I ran a bath and climbed in (I don't know why it helps, but it does) and she gave me some aspirin as well. I lay there in the bath for about an hour, and the tide of pain receded until I could more or less function again, but I was washed out - empty, exhausted.

Migraines are weird. I know that most people who get them are far worse off than me, though. Both my parents used to get them, and could be bedridden for forty-eight hours or more.

Anyway: Natalie made dinner. Luckily, I had made soup stock the previous day, and laid in a supply of vegetables, and we still had leftover chicken pieces. Took a lot of pressure off when I needed it.

The aftereffects of the migraine passed by about seven o'clock, which was handy. I went on to bake a chocolate cake (somebody's birthday today; not kids, but a friend) and to make a big batch of peppermint pillow candy (the birthday friend really, really likes peppermint.)

Today is also fine and sunny. It's still spring, still school holidays. I think the little barstewards need to go outside for a while...

Heh. That's an illusion. She decided to wear her little pink cheongsam over the top of pink trousers and a longsleeved shirt. The cheongsam has a zip in the bust area which has come open, and the shirt is kinda bunched up there. She's still a skinny, ribby little kid, as she should be.